User blog:StrategicMagic/Breaking the Meta - Objectives Teamcomp
For those of you who treat the metagame as if it was law, look away now, for this will give you nightmares. Yes, I'm jumping on the bandwagon, I propose a new teamcomp. As in the title, it is one specialising in securing objectives more quickly, leading to a team-wide gold advantage with the potential to snowball. It also has a few psychological uses too. I've written a 6 page Word document on this, but I'll condense it down just for all you. The 5 Principles This teamcomp has 5 main points behind it. Thay are as follows: *Early Dragon/Baron control, with faster killing speed and less chance for it to be stolen. *Buff control - Preventing the stealing of your own jungle buffs while doing the opposite to the enemy team can have a great effect. *Lane placement - Placing champions in different lanes to counter formation as it is now. AD and Supp go top, Tank/bruiser goes mid, AP goes bot and freefarms at the tower. Only the jungler remains unchanged. *Most of the time, the AD carry will be building a Wirggle's Lantern. The free ward per 3 minutes will take a little warding pressure off of the support. *Psychological cornering. Ever heard of a theory called "Learned Helplessness"? It can be applied here. By pushing down turrets quicker and by having people in disadvantageous lanes, they will lose morale and be more likely to surrender. This is the psychological snowball I mentioned earlier. The Basics *The AD carry will build a Wriggle's Lantern. Why? A less-experienced last hitter (like myself) can take the role with less stress involved. The armor will add a little to survivability, as will the lifesteal. The free ward can be priceless. They can also take a little warding pressure off of the support. Late-game, have you ever had to ward Baron but your build is already totally complete and couldn't buy a ward without selling an item and making it again, regardless of your role in the party? Having one of these makes up for that, at the cost of a bit of damage. Which is more important, your damage output or possibly giving away an uncontested Baron to the enemy team? Also, being at top lane, if on blue team, they can have blue buff almost to themselves. Making for an easy laning experience. If on red team, they have double golems and red buff. They can also ward blue team's blue buff and potentially control that too. The support build and playstyle remains largely unchanged. It should be noted that some unorthodox supports can work wonders here. (I've noticed TF can be incredible here as a support, and can also build yet another WL adding to the objective control.) *The jungler remains unchanged. There are a couple of junglers particularly favoured by this teamcomp. Examples are Shen (must build WL, can also fill a supp-tank role with Q and natural tankiness) and believe it or not, Caitlyn. Think passive. Think brush. Think jungle camps. The only camp with no brush close enough is Baron. But the WL built on good 'ol Cait will make up for that. I have tried and tested this. It works. You can even kite Dragon close enough to that tiny patch of brush at the exit of blue wraiths and abuse Cait's above-average AA range to get that passive working. It also counters any CV used at the dragon camp too. Damage doesn't drop off too much either. I've been both a jungler and AD carry at the same time as Cait, not dropping off too much in damage. (I went 16/3/6 that match). She also has the CC for reasonably good ganks. Her Teleport ganks are also exceptional. Using Cait here also allows a bit of free-reign for the AD carry to use something else that doesn't work so well with a WL. (Draven I find is HORRIBLE with WL, for example.) To make up for that, the supp might want to build it, however. Hence, Supp TF. *AP bot is the hardest of these roles to take. You will be outnumbered. You are (likely to be) squishy. You are against the highest-damage champion type and their support. You MUST NOT '''push hard. Don't worry about losing the lane, or the tower. That is to be expected. Anyone wo expects you to out-push and win a lane at a disadvantage like that is an idiot, frankly. Play fairly passive. Focus on staying alive and farm at your turret. May I suggest an Elesia's Miracle? This will help your lane so much. Anyone with great staying power in lane is strongly advised. Vlad would be excellent. Nidalee also. There are a few champions I would say are 'forbidden' in this lane for the sake of safety, but if you know your champ well and won't accidentally push like a madman, I'll let it slide. Those champs are Morgana (Think W), Heimerdinger (Turrets), Lux, Malzahar, Cassiopeia and Leblanc. Leblanc is the opposite here. I play her a lot and she has a real hard time pushing lanes without spamming W and R(W). Hence, unless that player is confdent they can hold a lane like that, I strongly disadvise her. Promote will help, but not much. If I can make one champion suggestion for this lane, it would have to be Nunu. He has that godly sustain and a pretty high damage output. He can be used as a secondary AP support later one. (Like I use Orianna, personally.) Mordekaiser would also be nice as he has that shield making him harder to force out of lane. The basic idea of this lane is "farm at the turret". '''Champion Suggestions by Role AD Carry *Tristana - Holy mother of Soraka... I got Tristana from that Facebook promo. The general idea is to max W first, right? I personally don't like doing that. I max E first. I also build Wriggle's on her. Almost all the time. I've had some crazy awesome moments doing things like this. Tristana's farming itself can snowball. No, let me rephrase that - it explodes like an avalanche. What I like to do is rush that WL and just auto attack as much as I can. I have a 20% chance of that huge damage proc and I get the lifesteal. A smart enemy will stay away from low-health minions as to avoid that passive aoe dmg on E when you last hit. You can gamble a bit and use the element of suprise with the WL proc to get some free harass off while farming at the same time. There are times when I get the proc on a full health minion, killing it outright, that procs the aoe, bringing a nearby minion into last-hitting health, so I take that one, snowballing as the whole wave falls in a similar fashion very, very quicky. Ever had those moments where an army of 30 or so minions are all clogged up at a tower of yours? Look no further. *Ashe - The WL synergises with both E and CV. You can have a little more bush control and can be a bit more carefree with the active vision on E. As mentioned before, you can help out your support by them not having to buy as many wards. *Varus - Not much to say here. His passive AS boost just generally helps proc that WL more often. It's just... nice. *Kog'Maw - Dat damage... I've played Kog quite a few times recently. I don't like the AD carry role much at all. I'm more of a jungler, tank or AP player personally. However, I've had a lot of fun with Kog. Madred's Bloodrazor is core on him, right? Fair enough, synergises with that epic W of his. Now add a Wriggle's Lantern. You will be rolling in gold and Baron/Dragon will go down seriously quick. Part of what this whole teamcomp is all about. There's also that bush control you have with R. By having that extra ward, you can save your mana for uses of R other than checking a potentially vacant brush. Support *Twisted Fate - I will outright admit it. I'm not great at playing TF. I do own him and have played him 10 - 20 times, but I'm certainly no pro. I still like to think I know what I'm talking about. The AS on his E helps out a little with WL. The bonus damage CAN be procced at the same time as WL, potentially one-shotting a Siege Minion. You have that aoe slow, that stun and mana sustain in W. All are welcome in a support. Q can be used for a bit of harass. The icing on the cake is that epic R. If this team is about controlling dragon/baron/buffs for the earlier portion of the game, then golbal vision on all enemies will certainly help out a lot. Being as assasin by nature, TF's base damage is relatively high. So if something within range is being stolen, TF can teleport there and at least try to thwart whatever is being attempted. I've talked to a few friends about supp TF, they say it doesn't work. I still believe it is viable. *Taric - Why? Because this teamcomp is truly, truly outrageous. Also, his passive sort of promotes auto attacking minions. Can you guess what item I'm gonna mention next? You guessed it! Wriggle's Lantern! He can also build pretty tanky, so the jungler/solo mid can go for a bit less tanky and more damage. *Maokai/Zyra - I love Maokai and I own Zyra on PBE and will be buying her as soon as she comes out on the main servers. Both have the same idea behind them. Maokai E and Zyra W can make for some smexy free wards. Due to his passive requiring you to auto attack, Maokai could also benefit from a WL. *Nidalee - Poke, heal, traps. 'Nuff said. *Teemo - Dem shrooms... Blind could also be a lifesaver if laning against someone that relies on auto-attacks like Tryndamere, for example. Solo Mid *Pantheon - His Q does a fairly good amount of damage. That passive from his E also helps a lot. The main point is his W. You can expect to see an AP mid on the enemy team. Therefore, you can expect them to be rather squishy. A stun from Panth at the start of a gank will likely secure a kill against such a squishy target. Even if they do manage to survive, you have that 100% crit to finish them off, because they surely should have taken lots of damage. You might even get doubly lucky placing someone like Panth mid. As we know, Leblanc, Kassadin, Veigar and Morgana can wreck an AP mid. So of the enemy team decides to 'counter pick' with them, be it blind or draft, that counter has now been well, countered. *Mundo - Dat health regen... AP champs can hit pretty hard at times if they want to force you out of lane. Not Mundo! Especially if you build yourself a Force of Nature. *Leona - Why not bot, you ask? Leona is one of my favorite champions. I love her, as a tank player. I've played her as an AD carry with a friend once, using my initiation and CC to stick to my targets in a kill lane. That worked out well. I've played her support to great effect. But I find tank Leona is the best way to go. Also, with initiation and CC like she has, a gank from your jungler is near enough secured once you land that E. If you want, even build a Phage/Frozen Mallet to add to the pain. *Nunu - A tanky Nunu can just roflstomp any AP. Ever tried Smite + Promote Nunu mid? There's nothing more satisfying than the enemy mid ragequitting because they simply could NOT force me out of lane no matter how hard they tried and got the hate from their team after losing 2 turrets before the 20:00 mark. *Gangplank - He works rather nicely with Wriggle's Lantern. That buff on his Q in the stealth rework patch is very nice. My only issue is that he isn't remarkably tanky. I suggest only taking him if your support or jungler is a little more on the tanky than damage output side of the scale. Jungle *Caitlyn - I've already said it before. Great with WL. Stun and slow for ganks. Can kite all but Baron to a nearby brush for her passive procs. High damage. Also, unexpected to see in the jungle. May require a little more protection from early invasion, however. A small price to pay for the epic rewards. *Shen - Shen can do practically anything. His non-reliance on blue buff will help out top/bot lane depending on your team colour a lot. His passive makes for reasonable jungle speed. He's a good support. He's a great tank. Baron/Dragon will be painless with that Q on the target. If Shen is in the jungle, then we can play squishier elsewhere. You WILL have to build WL on him, however. My only issue is that even after the ultimate nerf, he is still a popular ban at all skill levels. (Though the main reason I get for Shen bans at my 1184 ELO as I write this is either "he's op" "Why is Shen OP?" "he just is" which annoys me as he isn't that scary at all. The other main reason is that "pros ban him all the time". Really? Then ban him because a good Shen on your team is an insta-win, apparently. Are you likely to find a good Shen at my ELO? Nope. Which is why this teamcomp is more likely to succeed at lower ELO. That doesn't mean it won't work at higher ELO, however.) *Evelynn - Yes. Just, YES. I would have happily reccommended her before the stealth rework, because her old 'useless' self would actually fit into this quite nicely. She's even better now. An AD/hybrid jungle Eve obviously building a WL would be a joy to have. *Trundle - Okay, I'll have to admit I'm biased. Trundle is my favorite champion. He's just awesome in every possible way. That WL will be a core item, naturally. His W gives the increased AS, allowing for more procs. Q resets the auto-attack timer and it also applies the WL proc occasionally. His ganks are god tier. His clear speed and safety of clearing is comparable only to Taric and Mundo. (Yes Taric. I've played jungle Taric a few times, actually.) The AD steal on Q wrecks AD carries. His ult can either wreck tanks or AD carries. You can choose to use it on the tank and use the durability to take out the AD carry with less pain or you can use it on the AD carry to make them even easier to roflstomp. Did I also mention he's a troll? *Lee Sin - Typically, you will want a WL on this champ for W, or on almost any jungler. Having a few on your party gives him that little bit more mobility to open up some really big plays. *Shyvana - She's quite tanky. Her damage is naturally high. Q resets the auto-attack timer. 'Nuff said. *Blitzcrank - My advice for jungle Blitz in this teamcomp is to simply build tanky but rush a WL first. That opens up for more damage at mid lane and possibly a better/unexpected support up at top lane. *Shaco - AD Shaco can build WL and build Madred's Bloodrazor. Nice. His clone can also proc WL. See where I'm going with this? NOTE: A few junglers such as Nunu, Fiddle and Amumu to name a few are commonly expected NOT to build a WL. I would prefer not having these in the jungle for that very reason. AP Bot *Vladamir - His sustain with Q really helps his staying power in lane. Build damage, get tankier, build tanky, get more damage. Isn't that perfect for a solo bot situation like this? *Mordekaiser - The more he levels, the harder he is to push out of lane. What's the point of harass if it does 0 damage anyway? Also, game changing ult. *Nunu - Really high health and mana sustain. Highest scaling health in the game. Sort of anti-push with using that Q on the Siege Minion every 3 waves, potentially keeping the tower up for longer. Can be a kind of AP-support hybrid late game just by using his abilities. Do tons of damage and support at the same time. What more could I ask for? *Kennen - Uses the energy system, allowing for longer times in lane. Crazy damage late-game. *Nidalee - Said it earlier, heals, poke, traps. What more could we want? *Teemo - Because nothing will deter you more from trying to steal Baron than taking a 1000 damage mushroom to the face. Also anti-carry with Q and kinda support-ish in those shrooms once he gets a chance to place them round the map. Tips *Ideally, you want a minimum of 2 people using WL in your team. 3 is perfect. 4 might be sacrificing a bit too much team fight potential and 5 is just overkill. *A less financially crippled support is a stronger late-game support. *"You lost top lane really quick, we haven't got dragon once and they got Baron at 15:00. Surrender at 20." Learned Helplessness in League of Legends. This teamcomp will crush their hope. *A wise man once said "Buy wards and you will win." Free ward every 3 mins, anyone? *If the whole enemy team is missing, you expect that they are going to either go to or are currently at Baron, right? Therefore, you go there. If more people on your team have a WL, it takes less people to kill it. Let's say you have your jungle, AD carry and support with WL. Those 3 alone will be able to take out Baron no problem. The other two can purposefully go to areas with enemy minions etc so that they can be seen on the enemy minimap. This will give the effect of your WL allies being "stealthed" while killing Baron. *The first Dragon sets the pace of the match. Control the timer and you will control dragon from thereon out unless something happens. If you know the timer you can work around that timer. The same applies to buffs and Baron. Evidence of this Being Viable *Using the current metagame, I've done AD Tristana bot alongside my friend suppoting me as Sona. I built a WL and Sona rushed a Zeke's for me upon request. After pushing our lane, we managed to duo Dragon at level 8. Our lane then proceeded to snowball. End game (we won), I had over 100 more CS than the enemy AD carry. I was around 350, they had about 210. *I have tried and tested jungle Caitlyn. Do it yourself. If there are requests, I'll do a blog post specifically on that, outlining my runes, masteries, build and route. She is an exceptionally strong jungler. *I recently played a game vs intermidiate AI for an easy FWOTD bonus. Eveyone had that "I don't care, it's vs AI" attitude. We had a jungle Eve (post rework) and jungle Graves. Both had Smite. Only Graves build a WL. Our Gangplank at mid built a WL. Our team worked beautifully. The only downside to this is that it was vs AI, so we had 2 free jungles to exploit. Regardless, 2 people building WL was wonderful and does nothing but provide support for my teamcomp. NOTE: As more happens, I will go back and add further evidence. Be on the lookout. NOTE2: I play on both EUW and PBE servers. I've been playing for around 6 months. The champion that had most recently been released upon my joining the LoL community was Ziggs. Since then I've played over 600 games with almost equal wins and losses. Give or take 10 either way. Since reaching 30 in April, I have played 12 ranked games. I have 6 wins and 6 losses. At this current time, I'm waiting for some friends to hit 30 so I cna play ranked with people I am more comfortable with and won't flame/be flamed by. I may not be "pro" but I still like to think I have a fair amount of experience and know what I am talking about. I also believe I have reasoned everything here adequately. If you are interested in trying out this teamcomp with me, I'm happy to oblige. My summmoner names are as follows: EUW: Causation PBE: Tilia I have very few champions on the PBE. I only got onto the server once Zyra was announced. As such, I'm less able to work on this there as I have very limited options to take that fit with this teamcomp. Category:Blog posts